Method of making car trucks



march 11 1924.

- G. G. FLOYD METHOD OF MAKING CAR TRUCKS .2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Jan. 30.

Patented Mar. 11, 1924..

GEORGE G. FLOYD, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN STEEL FOUNDRIES,

OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

METHOD OF MAKING CAR TRUCKS.

Application filed January 30, 1922. Serial No. 532,576.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE G. FLOYD, a a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Method of Making Car Trucks, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to methods of making car trucks.

In the manufacture of railway car trucks, the various parts thereof are built in large numbers and assembled as the parts are picked promiscuously from the different stock piles. Most of the parts, including the side frames, are castings. Such side frame castings are provided with journal box openings which presumably are of a given dimension from center to center. In practice, however, it has been found that at times there is a variance from this dimension. Let it be assumed that the distance between such centers is one-eight of an inch greater on one side frame than on the one on the opposite side of the truck. Under such conditions the truck wheels rolling along a straight track would move to the right or left one-eight of an inch for a truck distance equal to the cross distance from the center of the thread of one wheel to the center of the thread of the opposite wheel on the same axle. The distance from the center of one rail to the center of the opposite rail happens to be about one-half of the circumference of a thirty-three (33) inch wheel. Therefore if the axle is one-eight of an inch out of square with the track it would roll to the right or left one-quarter of an inch in one revolution of a thirty-three inch wheel, and it would roll on indefinitely one-quarter of an inch out of line for every revolution of the wheel if the wheel flanges did not bear against the inside of the rail. As the flanges come in contact with the rail there is, of course, the same tendency for the wheel to roll to the right or left, and the work, therefore, of keeping the wheel rolling in a straight line is taken up by the friction between the flanges of the wheels and the inside of the rail. This friction, which can be calculated in inch pounds or foot pounds per mile of track, is astonishingly high.

Accordingly, one of the objects of this invention is to overcome such flange and rail wear and to provide a simple type of railway car truck in which the relation between the various parts thereof can be accurately determined and controlled and as a result thereof maintain the wheel axles in parallelism.

Another object is to provide a simple and accurate method for determining the location of relatively associated truck parts and assembling same.

These and other objects are accomplished by means of the invention disclosed on the accompanying sheets of drawings, in which Figure 1 is a fragmentary side elevation of a railway car truck embodying my invention;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary top plan View of the same;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary side elevation of the same railway car truck with certain of the parts removed;

Figures l, 5 and 6 are sectional views taken in the plane of lines H, 5-5 and 66 of Figure 3;

Figure 7 is a detail side elvation of one of the equalizing levers; and

Figure 8 is a side elevation of the asso ciated equalizing lever.

The various novel features of the inven tion will be apparent from the following de scription and drawings and will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring to the figures of the drawings, it will be noted that my invention is illustrated in connection with a six-wheel railway car truck in which the parts are duplicated on each side of the truck. Each side includes a side frame 10 having end journal box jaws 11 forming openings 12 for the reception of end journal boxes 13. The frame is also provided with openings 14 for the reception of the ends of transverse bolster members 15. Equalizing levers 16 and 17 transmit the loads from the bolster members to an intermediate journal box 18, nests of springs 19 preferably being interposed between the ends of the bolster members 15 and the equalizing levers 16 and 17.

As pointed out above, this invention re lates primarily to a method of and means for locating the relative positions of various parts of the truck so that all of the axles originally will be placed in parallel and will be maintained in parallel relationship. To

accurately machined to rigidly receive the intermediate journal boxes. jaws 22 are finished the pivot holes 23 are After these drilled through one end of the equalizing lever 16 a definite predetermined distance C from the center line of the intermediate journal box opening, whereupon each of said equalizing levers may be pivotally connected to the side frame by a pin 24. The other equalizing lever 17 will then be jig drilled as were the other equalizing levers, but a variation in the length of the equaliz'ing lever 17 will make very little difference because if the side frame is machined so that the dimension A is exact and the dimension B from the center of these jaws to the pins 24 is drilled an exact amount and the jaw equalizer 16 is properly jig drilled, the short wheel base D accordingly will be exactly the same dimension on both sides ofthe truck. While there may bea slight difference vbetween the short wheel base D and the wheel base E on the same side of the truck, there will be exactly this same difference on the opposite side of the truck.

Therefore the three wheel axles '25, 26 and '27, at all times will be parallel. The equalizing levers 17 are pivotally c'onnected to the side frame by pivot pins 28 similar to the pivot pins 24. It will be understood that the inner end of the equalizing lever 17 will rest upon and -be telescopically arranged with the inner end of the associated equalizing lever 16.

Itis my intention to cover all modifications of the invention falling within the spirit and scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. The method of making a six-wheel railway oar truck'ri'ncluding a side frame having 'two pairs of end journal box jaws, and two equalizing levers pivoted to said mediate equalizing journal box j awswhereby all of the wheel axles will be parallel.

2. The method of making a six-wheel railway car truck including a side frame having two pairs of end journal box jaws, and two equalizing levers pivoted to said side frames on each side of said truck, one 1' equalizing lever on each side having a pair of journal. box jaws for an intermediate journal: box, which method consists in first finishing the end journal box jaws to a definite dimension from center to center, then providing'the equalizing lever pivotal centers in said side frames a definite distance inwardly from the center lines of said end journal box jaws, then finishing the equalizing lever jaws, and then providing the jawed equalizing levers with pivot means an exact distance from the center line of the intermediate journal boxjaws whereby all of the wheel axles will be parallel.

8. The method of making a six-wheel railway car truck including aside frame having two pairs of end journal box jaws and two equalizing levers pivoted to said side frame on each si'de'of said truck, which method consists in first finishing the end journal box jaws to a definite dimension from center to center, then providing the equalizing lever pivot means in said side.

frames a definite distance inwardly from the center lines of said end journal box jaws, then machining equalizing lever portions for receiving the intermediate journal box, and then providing said equalizing levers with pivot means to cooperate with the pivot means of said side frames whereby all of the wheel axles will be parallel.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, this 24th day of January, 1922. I

GEORGE s. rnorn. 

